We heard there was a basketball game tonight, but who cares.
As a site of writers who massively went to NC status (including yours truly), we’re going to be focusing all of our energy on the stick-and-puck game that’s taking place inside the PNC Arena on Saturday night.
The Hurricanes will host the Wild to kick off their final month of the season, as Carolina looks to expand a seven-game point streak against a Minnesota team that has its own eight-game point streak in Raleigh.
It will be an interesting site to see in net for Minnesota, as Marc-Andre Fleury, acquired by deadline, will start for Minnesota. For his career, Fleury is 18-10-1-5 against the Canes with a 2.50 GAA and .914 save percentage.
The Canes will still be without Ethan Bear and Jesperi Kotkaniemi for Saturday’s game, while Frederik Andersen will be between the pipes for Carolina.
Here’s how the two teams will line up:
Carolina Hurricanes
Teuvo Teravainen – Sebastian Aho – Seth Jarvis
Andrei Svechnikov – Vincent Trocheck – Max Domi
Nino Niederreiter – Jordan Staal – Jesper Fast
Martin Necas – Derek Stepan – Jordan Martinook
Jaccob Slavin – Tony De Angelo
Brady Skjei – Brett Pesce
Brendan Smith – Ian Cole
Frederic Andersen
Antti Raanta
Injuries and scratches: Steven Lorentz (healthy), Ethan Bear (lower body), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (lower body)
Kirill Kaprizov – Ryan Hartman – Mats Zuccarello
Jordan Greenway – Joel Eriksson Ek – Marcus Foligno
Tyson Jost – Frederick Gaudreau – Kevin Fiala
Brandon Duhaime – Nick Bjugstad – Nicolas Deslauriers
Jacob Middleton – Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin – Matt Dumba
Alex Goligoski – Dmitry Kulikov
Marc-Andre Fleury
Cam Talbot
Injuries and scratches: Jordie Benn (Health), Matt Boldy (Upper Body), Jon Merrill (Upper Body)
